Subscribe!Adventures of the Gummi Bears (1985)
Originally posted on 23 May 2026First episode title: A New Beginning
How familiar with the show am I?: I was only vaguely aware of it.
For this 100th entry of Debutniverse, we have a fantasy adventure featuring multi-coloured bouncing bears named after a sweet treat! Out of universe, I mean. The sweet doesn't seem to exist in the context of the show, which is in a faux-medieval world also featuring ogres alongside the humans.
The Gummi Bears are:
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Zummi Gummi, a purple bear who is their wise leader
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Gruffi Gummi, an irritable and untrusting brown bear
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Grammi Gummi, an elderly, motherly orange bear
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Tummi Gummi, a large, gluttonous blue bear
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Sunni Gummi, a cheerful and playful yellow bear
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Cubbi Gummi, an adventurous young pink bear who wants to be a knight
Also relevant to this show are:
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Cavin, a page boy who believes in the existence of Gummi Bears
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King Gregor, ruler of the kingdom of Dunwyn, and his rebellious daughter Princess Calla
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Duke Igthorn, a villain with a moustache and goatee who tries to take over the kingdom with his army of ogres
As the episode beings, Duke Igthorn is having his ogres build a catapult with which to destroy Dunwyn Castle. Then Cavin and another page called Unwin are on their way to deliver supplies to woodcutters when Unwin mocks the Gummi Bear medallion that Cavin wears, that indicates he believes that such fairy tale creatures are real. They get to the woodcutters' camp only for it to be attacked by ogres (ordered there by Igthorn who was worried the woodcutters were too close to his catapult), and everyone flees, Cavin managing to get one attack in on an ogre before falling down a ledge and getting knocked unconscious. Cavin's boss Sir Tuxford makes it to the castle and tells Gregor what has happened - Calla worries about whether Cavin is alright. It turns out that his unconscious body is being stared at by the Gummi Bears! They're arguing about whether to help him when Cubbi spots the Gummi Bear medallion. Cavin wakes up and is excited to see real Gummi Bears. The bears scatter in fright, and we see Cubbi drink something out of a bottle and proceed to bounce away from Cavin, all the way up into a tree. Then ogres rush towards them and the Gummies rush through hatches that open up in the roots of a tree, inadvertently taking Cavin with them.
The Gummi Bears realise Cavin is in their home with them and tie him up. Gruffi tries to interrogate Cavin about the medallion, which Cavin's grandfather gave him, and then Cavin asks if he can have a drink. Tummi unthinkingly gives him Gummiberry Juice, the drink that makes Gummi Bears bounce, and it turns out that in humans it instead grants temporary super strength. Cavin convinces the Gummi Bears he's a good person, the Gummies introduce themselves, and Zummi has Cavin swear on the great book of Gummi wisdom (which they haven't been able to open for years) that he won't tell anyone about their existence. Sunni and Cubbi take Cavin on a kind of underground rollercoaster that can get the Gummi Bears to anywhere in the forest. They come up to ground level and happen to spot Igthorn testing the catapult, and learn about his plan to attack the castle. Back at the Gummies' home, Cavin tries to convince them to help fight back against the duke, but they don't see how they could be any help - annoyed, Cavin throws down the medallion and storms off. Zummi casually puts on the medallion only for it to start glowing and tugging him along - it takes him to the book of wisdom and finally unlocks it, giving him all the secrets of Gummi magic and history. Zummi is inspired to help Cavin after all, and the other Gummies agree to come along.
Cavin sneaks into the ogre camp alone and grabs a saw to try and remove the catapult's wheels, but an ogre catches him, and he gets chained to a pole. At the Gummies' house, Zummi copies down as many spells as he can from the book before they leave. Then they arrive near the ogre camp, planning to try and get some Gummiberry Juice to Cavin, so Zummi casts an invisibility spell on Gruffi. Gruffi gets the juice to Cavin just as the invisibility spell is wearing off, and Cavin starts beating up ogres! He throws two of them and they land near Igthorn - when they tell him they were thrown by a small boy who drank something a Gummi Bear gave him, Igthorn thinks they're lying and has them taken away. The catapult is brought to the castle, and, before Tuxford and his men can ride out and attack, the ogres fire a ball of tar that keeps the drawbridge stuck shut, then start firing boulders to really damage the castle. The Gummies and Cavin make a plan for Cavin to go for the catapult while the bears act as a distraction, and so the bears start attacking the ogres, using their bounciness to their advantage. Igthorn now knows the bears are real, and then notices Cavin sneaking around, so he steals the juice and makes himself super-strong! Cavin and the bears still go for the catapult while Igthorn now begins throwing boulders himself, but the magic wears off while he's standing on the catapult with a boulder above his head, flattening him and then launching him at the castle! Then the Gummies' sabotage makes the catapult roll out of control, and Cavin only just gets away unharmed. He almost tells Princess Calla what happened when she asks if he's alright, but he remembers his promise and doesn't reveal the existence of the Gummi Bears.
I know I say all the time that shows have catchy theme songs, but this one's an example of a show I didn't watch as a kid where the theme song has nevertheless firmly stuck itself in my brain's pile of earworms and is playing on repeat even when I'm not thinking about the show.
There's this bit at the start where we appear to see the catapult destroy the castle, only for both to turn out to be models that Igthorn is playing with while the ogres build the real catapult. It adds a nice touch of eccentricity to Igthorn's character, and I would also presume it's useful to demonstrate to younger viewers what the catapult is meant to do so that they understand what the stakes are later on.
Amongst the ogres, there's one short one who's the victim of a running joke where everything always ends up hurting him. Igthorn always ignores whenever this happens, which shows you he's not the kind of villain that cares about his minions.
Cavin is a nice hero character. There's kind of a "chosen one" thing going on with his medallion, but he only has it because his grandfather found it, and we don't learn any more details than that here. It's more that the medallion is something special and Cavin just comes along with it. The fact that he still wants to help people even if the Gummi Bears won't help is a good sign for him.
King Gregor goes around with his chest mostly bare and strangely featureless. Princess Calla barely hides the fact that she has a crush on Cavin, and there's just one moment that shows he feels the same way about her.
The first time we hear any Gummi talk is Sunni saying that they should do something to help Cavin, which does show you what kind of person she is, but she ends up being the bear with the least amount of focus in this episode. Cubbi is much more prominent among the younger cubs, and I get the feeling his desire to be a hero is probably a major storyline in this show. Cubbi gets a line early on where he says he's heard that humans eat Gummi Bears, which shows how little contact they've had but is also a fun reference to the fact that the Gummies are named after a sweet.
All of the Gummies have voices matching their personalities. If I tell you that Grammi sounds like a kindly old grandmother then you're probably already imagining something close to her actual voice. Tummi Gummi is played by Lorenzo Music, meaning that the greediest and fattest bear sounds just like Garfield, appropriately.
Zummi, being the leader, obviously gets plenty of scenes that demonstrate his role as the guardian of Gummi lore. But I would say the most actual character focus in this episode goes to Gruffi, who acts like a grump all the time but shows signs of caring underneath that abrasive personality. Near the end he drops it completely when he's relieved to see that Cavin is okay after the catapult accident, and then catches himself and pretends he isn't so pleased.
Gruffi: He's alright! He's... alright for a human, that is.
When Zummi gets to read from the book of wisdom, one passage tells him to "strive to make Gummies great once more", which would feel like a really weird MAGA reference if it wasn't thirty years too early. This first episode doesn't go into much detail of what the predecessor Gummies were like, or why they had to lock their knowledge away until the future, but I've heard that this is elaborated on in later episodes.
A little animation touch that I really liked: in cartoons, when someone turns invisible, it's really common to show some kind of outline or other visual representation that makes it really obvious to the viewer where the invisible character is, making all the other characters look stupid for not being able to tell where they are. This show does it much better - when Gruffi's invisible he disappears completely, with his movements only represented by sound effects and by the way the camera moves. Of course, it's not very long before it starts to wear off and he begins appearing and disappearing repeatedly.
This was an enjoyable show and I'm intrigued to see where it goes from here. The Gummies are all well-defined distinct characters that do their thing without becoming annoying, and Cavin is a likeable enough hero so far.
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